Sunday Oct 8, 2023
There are always so many things going on in the life of the missionaries. Hermana Chappell is always helping those who are suffering with physical and at times mental issues, on the phone talking with them, also through messages, and the best of all are the days when we have Zone Conferences where we are all together. This past week we went to La Lima where we had a 5 Zone conference. There were over 100 missionaries there so Hermana Chappell was crazy busy. The other reason she was so busy is that they had flu shots there for all the missionaries. The people from the health dept were there to administer the vaccines but she had to keep track of them all and then add that information for each and every one of them on their individual health history.
Here are our Zone Leaders after getting their shots. Elder Balsells and Elder Williams. It was a good day but very tiring between the travel and all that happened there, but it was great. One really great thing about getting together with the other zones is that we get to see missionaries that were once here in Tela, so we get to catch up with them and share a moment or two together again.
We had a Branch activity this past week on Friday night which was great. There were board games, soccer, and the activity that gathered the most attention was Karaoke. They played whatever song the person wanted, Hermana Chappell was the first one up to the mike and she, and I sang "Soy un hijo de Dios". "I am a child of God". It was fun, most everyone participated with either a church song or other songs, some in English and most in Español. The Elders came over and participated and the Hermanas had the primary kids sing primary songs with them. It really was a fun evening.
There were nearly 100 people in attendance, it was a great boost for the Branch to get together in this way. We had 84 people in sacrament meeting today. Things have really changed with this new Branch President, I hope everyone will continue to participate and support the Branch. At least for now there is a lot of good positive momentum.
When it was time for the Elders to go back over to their area we gave them a ride, which we do quite often. We were going down the road and all of a sudden everything came to a stop, then slowly one lane opened up and cars went very slowly around an accident where a car had hit a motorcycle. The car was off to the side of the road but the motorcycle and two of its three riders were laying on the ground next to it. Our turn came to drive around them and the Elders said, "Oh my goodness that is Christopher and Dulce Bonilla from the Telamar Branch". So as soon as we could we stopped and went back to where they were. It hadn't been long at all since the accident so there were no police or ambulance there yet but people had stopped to help and direct traffic etc. There are three holidays in Honduras in October so they combined them all into this past week. So the whole country had this week off work and I think that half of them came to Tela to the beach this past week. Traffic has been crazy, and when you drive down this main road like we have to, there is always so much traffic. This was of course after dark, and I don't know if the car or motorcycle either one had lights, I hope so but there are so many that don't, and you just never know what is up ahead. So when we got to them we could also see Manases their younger brother standing on the curb with blood running down both knees, he was standing at least, and was just scared to death and crying. It felt good to comfort him and all of them in this very terrible time for them. Dulce who is 17 was driving the motorcycle and Manases who is maybe 12 was in the middle and I think somewhat protected by his older brother and sister, then there was Christopher who is maybe 16. Christopher had a bad cut probably 3-4 inches long on his knee but otherwise looked ok, but Dulce, the driver had a bad head injury as well as her left leg was pretty cut up. They were all hurt on the left side as that is the side they hit the car, or where the car hit them. So we are there assessing the situation when all of a sudden a pickup truck stops, they pick up Dulcy and Christopher and pull them up into the back of this pickup truck and off they go, and Manases is like, ' What is going on? What about me?" Just then we could hear an ambulance so pretty soon it got there and stopped and Manases got in there, then just as it left their older sister and their mom and another brother pulled up on their bicycles. So this families main source of income is that they make rolls, "Pan de coco" rolls made with coconut water and sell them down on the beach, most every day but especially on holidays and on weekends. They had finished for the day and were all on their way back home. So we loaded mom and older sister in the car and headed to the hospital. The other brother and the Elders walked the bikes on towards home for them. The motorcycle stayed there, a man who said he lived in the area said that he would keep it for them until they could return and get it. I don't think it was seriously hurt. It was a quite the night. We went with the Elders to their house the next day and saw them all, they were back home all wrapped up and stitched back up. Dulce still had a very swollen head but was happy, she has a very happy positive personality and it was so good to see her back to her almost normal character. They all had helmets on so I am not sure what Dulce hit her head on so hard to cause the swelling but I am so glad they did have helmets on, or it could have been much worse.
She said that when she woke up this morning she couldn't even open her left eye at all but by the afternoon when we were there it was opening a bit. We added the Bonilla family in our fasting and prayers today.
At the end of church today it was pointed out to us that there was a big lizard that was trying to get out of the building and could find a way. Hermana Chappell was brave and got a picture before they opened this door and let it out. It is quite common to see the little Gekos but bigger ones like this one usually stay hidden from view, but they are very common here.
Yikes!!!! Have a great week!!!
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